Michigan’s trip to Oregon is still on, even as a nationwide ground stop throws air travel into chaos across the country.
The FAA grounded every plane in the United States in an extraordinary move, and there’s no clear timeline yet for when the order will be lifted. That has left plenty of college football teams scrambling, with travel plans potentially needing to change and some games possibly at risk of being played as scheduled.
Michigan, though, already got out ahead of the mess. According to Anthony Broome of The Wolverine, the Wolverines’ flight to Eugene for Saturday’s game arrived on Thursday.
That means Michigan should be in position to take the field against Oregon, even if the broader scheduling picture around college football gets ugly from here. With conference championship spots still being sorted out and the 12-team College Football Playoff looming, a nationwide travel freeze could create major problems with only three weeks left in the season.
On the field, Michigan heads to Eugene at 5-4, while Dan Lanning’s Ducks are 6-3. Oregon is ranked 18th and comes in riding back-to-back ranked wins over Northwestern and Ohio State.
Michigan’s résumé has been uneven. The Wolverines beat Oklahoma earlier this season, but they’ve lost their last two ranked matchups, falling to Iowa by one and Indiana by six.
Last week was especially rough. Michigan dropped a 15-6 game to what was described as the worst Michigan State team seen in years, with the Spartans entering at 2-6 and 0-5 in the Big Ten. The Wolverines also failed to crack 200 total yards.
Now there’s another change on offense. Jason Beck has been fired, and Jim Harding will handle the play-calling against Oregon. The offense has been stuck all season, and this week the problems aren’t coming from a nationwide ground stop - they’re coming from the way Michigan has played up front and the calls that have gone with it.
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